Global Voices » India

India: Internet Companies Bow to Censorship Demands

Christine Mehta — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 21:30:47 +0000

India took a giant leap back in time when it demanded that 20 major Internet companies, including Google, Facebook, and Twitter present plans to filter “anti-religious,” or “anti-social” material from the content available to Indian citizens.

Political leaders, including Sonia Gandhi, telecommunications minister Kapil Sibal, and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh brought a case against the Internet companies demanding the pre-emptive removal of “objectionable” material, according to the government. “Objectionable” material includes blasphemous material and religious slurs, but much of the content also includes critical and unflattering content of many of India's leading politicians, including Sonia Gandhi, according to the Financial Times' blog, beyondbrics.

Cartoon by Bryant Arnold, CartoonADay.com. Used under a Creative Commons 2.5 license (BY-NC)

After initial resistance the Internet companies have finally bowed to India’s high-handed demands and conceded to present plans for filtering “offensive content,” by Feb. 21. The next hearing will be held by the courts on March 1. Authoritarian regimes such as China, Russia and Egypt have made similar demands but India is the first robust democracy, with a thriving domestic media scene, to make such sweeping demands.

Is India living up to its position as the world's largest democracy? Not according its citizens. Blogger AdityaT quotes a Google advocate in a blog post on igyaan.in:

The issue relates to a constitutional issue of freedom of speech and expression, and suppressing it was not possible as the right to the freedom of speech in democratic India separates us from a totalitarian regime like China.

What to do Baba thinks:

It is almost impossible to ban Google or Facebook in India. [..] I hope and believe, that the matter be settled both for the good of society as well as the web. Let us punish the guilty and not choose a scapegoat.

Citizen outrage may be too late. Google has already started to direct users away from the domain blogspot.com, and redirecting them to a censored blogspot.in, the Indian version of the blog site. Material censored on Indian sites and versions of search engines, will still be available outside of India. Yahoo and Facebook are refusing to consider censoring their material, as they claim they have nothing to do with the objectionable materials, according to blog, Jaipur.co.

Google has a long history of wading into a gray area when it comes to appeasing irate governments. Founded on the ideal of “don't be evil,” Google has stopped using that slogan in public, as the motto has occasionally been trashed in favor of profits rather than providing service that serves the public best.

Internet behemoths Google, Facebook and Twitter, have guidelines that require them to “adhere to domestic law,” meaning that they will remove content that violates local law. The three companies have pointed to this in self-defense from accusations hurled by human rights advocates countless times in recent years, first in China, then in Egypt, and now in India. However, those guidelines were not put in place to enable governments to choke the free flow of information. The reality is that the Internet is ungovernable forum, and the digital sphere has few laws. In India, Google is far from being a victim, it is allowing governments to censor material to avoid losing 121 million users if the government blocks Google completely, and a potential 900 million more as India's Internet users multiply every year.

Google isn’t bowing to government censorship to provide at least “some” ability to Indian citizens to access information, it’s too afraid to lose millions of users to its competition.

Google’s move is directly contradictory to its recent withdrawal from China. Although obviously not the best business move, one of the most significant measures Google could have taken to fight censorship was withdrawing from China. Timothy B. Lee wrote on the New York Times’ Room for Debate blog:

Google’s withdrawal from China has important symbolic value. Google has become one of the world’s most prestigious brands, and for the last four years it has lent undeserved legitimacy to the government’s censorship efforts.

It’s mind-boggling that Google would follow this huge achievement with submitting to India’s censorship demands.

So, we enter the First Digital War. It’s governments versus the Internet, and even worse, it’s the Internet companies versus each other in their quest for Internet dominance. Internet companies do an enormous disservice to their users, and to the fight against corruption in India, by succumbing to the government’s requirement that they censor or close up shop. Sure, Google might lose a significant portion of Internet users to a competitor’s social media site, so might Facebook, but in trying to beat each other out to reign supreme in the digital world, they seem to be slowly destroying the foundations on which they were built: freedom, empowerment, and an obligation to “don’t be evil.” Kevin Kelleher phrases it aptly on Reuters’ MediaFile blog when he writes that Google’s slogan, “’don’t be evil’ became ‘let’s all be evil.’”

Google has stopped using that slogan in public. It’s time they brought it back.

India: A Disastrous Tour Of Australia

Rezwan — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 23:27:08 +0000

In the context of the Indian cricket team's recent bad performance Amreekandeshi has some suggestions how to improve India's fortunes in Australia.

India: Child Abuse In Mumbai

Rezwan — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 23:20:24 +0000

Debolina Raja Gupta blames Mumbai police for not being able to solve the recent child abuse cases and the trend is on the rise as a consequence.

India: Videocast on Pongal Celebrations

Rezwan — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 21:56:12 +0000

Kamla Bhatt features Dr. Geeta Vasudevan of Chennai, who describes the significance of Pongal (harvest festival) celebrations in Pondicherry & Chennai in a videocast.

India, Bangladesh: Cattle Trade And Border Killings

Rezwan — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 21:44:19 +0000

The New Horizon thinks that cattle trade is the major root cause behind the regular border killings at India-Bangladesh border.

India: Tiny Travel Tales Contest

Rezwan — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 21:36:18 +0000

Clay, the travel and holiday blog of Club Mahindra, is organizing a short story contest on travel. The last date of submission of posts is February 5, 2012.

India: Jaipur Literature Fest Fashion

Rezwan — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 20:55:15 +0000

Jaipur Literature Festival, the largest literary festival in Asia-Pacific, has recently ended. Wearabout blog posts some pictures of festival fashion among the eclectic mix of men from all over; artists, poets, writers, intellectuals, pseudo-intellectuals, serious journalists, idlers, socialites etc.

India: New Challenges to Fight Tuberculosis Worldwide

Christine Mehta — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 19:59:52 +0000

This page is part of our special coverage Global Development.

The Indian media and blogosphere have been locked in fierce battle over two words: “extensively,” and “totally.” If you’ve been following Indian news at all, you know that it is about the global health community’s tuberculosis debate.

India’s media sphere exploded last week with reports from Mumbai of a tuberculosis strain completely resistant to all known treatment. The Indian newspapers coined it “totally drug-resistant tuberculosis” or TDR-TB. But just a few days later the Government of India released a statement refuting the term TDR-TB, saying that the World Health Organization has no clear definition for TDR-TB, and that the TB emerging in Mumbai, India is merely another strain of extremely drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB). They’re now calling it XXDR-TB, or “extensively drug-resistant TB.”

Electron microscope image of mycobacterium tuberculosis, responsible for tuberculosis. Image by Flickr user Sanofi Pasteur (CC BY-NC-ND).

The blogosphere and headlines erupted with experts and Indian citizens wondering why the Government of India and the big players in TB treatment were arguing over what to call it, rather than what to do about it.

Bharati Ghanashyam, a blogger for Journalists Against TB, summed up the outrage that erupted in the global health blogosphere following the Indian Ministry of Health's statement, “Call it any name but banish it.”

Ghanashyam commented that the TDR-TB fiasco arose on the heels of the news that India had been declared polio-free for an entire year. His question: how could India achieve such a milestone but drop the ball so badly with TB? He then noted that there was “considerable debate, denial and discussion on whether this new form can be termed TDR-TB.”

As per a report in the Indian Express, “The doctors from Hinduja have unnecessarily raised a panic alarm. The term TDR is not recognized by the WHO or the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP). As of now, they are only slotted as XDR-TB cases,” said an official from the Directorate of Health Services.”

Twitter user TBVI_EU agreed with Ghanashyam:

@TBVI_EU: “So true! @bghanashyam It makes little difference what we call different forms of TB. What matters is people are dying,”

Blogger Alanna Shaikh, an expert in health consulting, got some attention from the development community for her blog post on End the Neglect: and calling the new form “TDR-TB.”

TDR-TB is exactly what it sounds like. Doctors have not yet been able to identify a treatment for this TB that will work,” she wrote. “This is a bad, bad development for global health.

The WHO claims on their website, that there is no way to determine whether strains of TB that appear resistant to drugs in the laboratory, are actually resistant to the drugs in the patient. This may seem counter-intuitive since the 12 patients suffering from a particularly virulent form of tuberculosis in Mumbai have obviously show they are not susceptible to the available drugs, the WHO is simply attempting to state that it lacks a standardized test to determine just how effective different combination of the drugs are in the laboratory vs. treating real patients.

Incidentally, India’s Ministry of Health issued a report on January 20, 2012, stating that nine out of the twelve reported patients were stable on their current treatment while three had died, confirming that the strain is susceptible to some antibiotic treatment.

One thing remains certain, the #tuberculosis Twitter stream and TB online advocacy community are adamant that tuberculosis needs to remain a high-priority for donor governments and international donor organizations like the Global Fund and the United Nations.

This page is part of our special coverage Global Development.

India: Right To Education vs. The Right Education

Rezwan — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 04:26:20 +0000

Vijay Menon points out that the education in India mostly means passing examinations and earning degree certificates and the issue of the quality of education is being ignored.

India's Current Leadership

Rezwan — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 22:01:47 +0000

Atanu Dey comments on India’s current leadership: “it appears that the primary requirements for holding political power in India are a lack of common sense, common honesty and common decency.”

India: Did BBC Top Gear's India Special Really Offend Indian Sensibilities?

Aparna Ray — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 11:16:37 +0000

On 28th December, the BBC aired a 90minute, Top Gear India Special episode [video]. It featured the irrepressible Jeremy Clarkson, who, along with his 2 colleagues, undertook a 1300mile drive across India in what was apparently intended to be a “light-hearted road trip” whose “key ingredients will be [India's] beautiful scenery, busy city scenes, local charm and colour within these locations, areas to illustrate the local car culture that exists in India.”

The programme showed Jeremy on “a trade mission” to India - in an attempt to promote British Industry and British products which would be relevant to the Indian market. So you saw him driving around in a Jaguar XJS with a toilet fitted to the boot of his car, because, as he declared “everyone who comes to India gets the trots.” Another part of the episode showed him stripping down to his underpants to demonstrate the use of a British trouser press (which, according to him could double up as a naan or flatbread maker). Then there was the bit about advertising British products on Indian trains.

Screenshot from Youtube video by Gamerguyali

Initially, all seemed well. However, after a while, it appeared that Clarkson's brand of humor had not gone down well with the Indian administration. The Indian High Commission formally complained to the BBC, saying that the programme “was replete with cheap jibes, tasteless humour and lacked cultural sensitivity that we expect from the BBC.” Soon the incident got escalated to the extent that the British Prime Minister David Cameron, who appears briefly in the beginning of the program asking the team to 'stay away from India', had to distance himself from the controversy.

However, in this instance, the netizens have not sided with the government's outrage on this issue. Discussions in the social media have largely felt that all this official hullabaloo over the program's content was over-the-top and uncalled for. Many of the comments on Twitter reflected this sentiment.

@vinnie_three: Just watched the top gear india special and it is funny as hell. #topgear

@sanidhya: I actually quite enjoyed the Top Gear India Special. Don't get what all the controversy is about. When did we become so touchy as a country?

@sanjay_ankur : me is watching the Top Gear India special episode. It's freakin awesome!

@Annapakshi: Top Gear made a complete ass of itself in the India special program. Dont know what the fuss is all about! #BBC #Topgear

@Subrat_Goswami: Just watched the much criticized BBC Top Gear India Special - Its best of British lunacy on our stupid systems. videobb.com/watch_video.ph… @BBC

@gkjohn: Why do we Indians have such a low tolerance for humour? Was funny when they made fun of the Mexicans but when it's us.. tgr.ph/ApkYP6

@HoeZaay: What !? BBC's Top Gear came to India and depicted us in “bad light” ?! Make them apologise ! Only Indians are allowed to do that.

Some of the Tweeple also stated that there was no harm in showing some of the realities of India, for example the ‘heart-in-your-mouth' driving displayed on the highways, the difficulty of driving on a dual carriageway etc., which have been captured in the episode. Others felt that the Indian administration, in seeking an apology from BBC and Britain was being unduly over-sensitive over a non-issue when they had other serious issues to deal with both in the UK and in India.

@kabeermahajan:anybody who is questioning Top Gear india special should try and drive fast on a dual carriageway in India… (BOM - POONA expway excluded)

@amreekandesi: India asks Top Gear host to apologise for mocking our culture. The same India where rats chewed up a man in a hospital.

Reflecting the sentiment that there were more serious issues that the administration should spend their time on, Yogesh Sarkar, in the India Travel Forum - BCMT touring, wrote:

The real irony I guess is the fact that an Indian student had been murdered in UK in a racial crime, while another was found dead in mysterious circumstances and Indian High Commission is busy paying attention to the work of Jeremy Clarkson!… I had seen the episode and didn't really found it to be insulting. I mean, when we laugh on the episode related to Albanian Mafia, what right do we have to stand up in arms over an episode filmed in India? If any thing, I believe the last section about the drive in Himalayas would just be an advertisement for Incredible India and more and more foreigners would love to come and see it.

Top Gear India - humorous credit line. Screenshot from Youtube video by jack390

On the same discussion thread, referring to other controversies that has plagued Top Gear over the years, forum member Hacket commented on the India episode:

I didn't find the episode offensive. Mockery was more towards the boys themselves,Britain than India. Secondly, TG,Orangutan and co. always mock and been in several controversy. BBC keeps replying back to take it in a light humorous way.

Another member, Anup Mathur, felt that Indians were gradually becoming intolerant and incapable of taking things lightly. He said:

We Indians are fast becoming the most intolerant people in the world! A sense of humour has always been absent as has the ability to handle criticism. So full of ourselves and so self-righteous! Is it any wonder people are itching to do some Indo bashing?!

Finally, the verdict seems to be that this was a storm in a teacup and it was time to get over it. What should be India's response then? Perhaps, it has been best encapsulated in this tweet:

@madversity: Don't seek apologies from those who you should be mocking back. But then, your humour has to be in Top Gear

India: Andaman & Nicober Island Jarawa Tribe Video

Rezwan — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 03:18:43 +0000

Mariel at South Asia Fair reports that the Indian government is investigating a recently surfaced video in which the women from the Jarawa tribe in Andaman & Nicober Island were forced to dance naked waist up in front of tourists.

India: Power Project Threatens Wildlife Reserve In Himachal

Rezwan — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 21:09:43 +0000

Ravinder Makhaik reports that forest lands are being diverted for a private sector medium sized hydropower project in the Bara Bangal wildlife reserve area of Kangra district in Himachal Pradesh, India. This will lead to destruction of wildlife, poaching and deforestation.

India: The Curious Case of Draping Statues to Ensure Fair Elections

Aparna Ray — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 19:59:14 +0000

The Indian State of Uttar Pradesh (UP) is going to the polls in February 2012, to elect the new State Assembly. Campaigning by the various political parties has reached feverish pitch. However, what has grabbed the nation's attention is the recent order by the Election Commission that all statues in UP of Ms. Mayawati (the current Chief Minister and the leader of the Bahujan Samaj Party) and her party symbol - the elephant - be draped by Wednesday 11 January, 2012.

The Chief Election Commissioner, SY Qureishi, stated that the order was in keeping with the Model Code of Conduct, to ensure a level playing field and prevent any political party from getting undue political mileage by being able to influence the voters.

: Mayawati at the newsstand. Image from Flikr via Counterclockwise. CC BY

During her tenure as Chief Minister, Mayawati has repeatedly faced controversy over her penchant for spending huge amounts of public money in erecting large statues of herself, other Dalit icons, as well as those of her party symbol the elephant, all over the State - especially in and around Lucknow - the State Capital, as well as Greater Noida.

The task set up by the Election Commission was therefore pretty much a jumbo one. The order and the resulting efforts (video uploaded to YouTube by timesnowonline) drew a lot of reactions, not only from political parties but from netizens as well:

Twitter was immediately abuzz with reactions. Some wondered if the cover-up would serve any practical purpose or whether the Election Commission went slightly overboard in their enthusiasm. Others wondered if covered statues would actually work in Mayawati's favour.

@SwatySMalik: Although I Do not Like #Mayawati.. I think EC went overboard in ordering to Cover her statues etc! #unfair

@calamur: every time you think that the system cannot get more stupid, they prove you wrong cover up women, cover up elephants, cover up crimes…

@AbhinandanSekhr: this #mayawati statues covering will wrk 2 her advantage 4 sure Even those who hadn't will notice her “voice being muzzled”

@AnupamPkher: A Covered Mayawati statue will get more attention than an uncovered one. People will say,” Oh that is Mayawati's statue covered.”

@tavleen_singh: Very hard to understand how veiling statues of Mayawati and her elephants will help make elections free and fair in Uttar Pradesh!

@ankit_me: Thanks to EC, Mayawati got her publicity and campaign budget reduced.

@riya0001: Illvika Saikia: I think #EC is helping Mayawati by covering Elephant and her statue, as it will bring more attention and curosity among voters, to kno her.

Some Twitter users felt that the statues should remain uncovered and in public view, if only to remind the voters of the huge amount of public money that was used to fund them:

@acorn: Nitin Pai: Mayawati's deeds shouldn't be hidden from voters. More seriously, the EC's decision to cover up her statues is unwarranted & wrong.

@sanjukaul: Sanjay Kaul: @pragmatic_d These statues had become symbol of Mayawati's power. Covering lets voters know abt misuse of public money. Let voters decide

There were a lot of humorous responses as well, with netizens joking whether the rule should extend to Mayawati herself and live elephants, as well as objects which are symbols of other political parties and can ‘influence the voter' through association:

@rangats: I wonder what would have EC done if Mayawati had - Rising Sun - as symbol ? Order ppl not to come out of house in morning ?

@amit_lakhotia: EC wants to cover elephants statue for UP elections. Are they going to cover lotus temple in Delhi elections?

@pragmatic_d: Fine, you can veil Ms. Mayawati's statues. But what about Ms. Mayawati herself. Will she be also forced to wear a veil till polling day?

@rajeshkalra: Wonder if all traffic cops are campaigning for Congress. They raise their hand and show me their palm to stop me! Must complain to EC

@sameermufti: Mayawati planning to move to France. No one can veil her statues there!!!

In fact, a blogger Being Cynical even wrote an open letter to the Election Commission, pointing out that the order appeared to be rather impractical and questioning the motives behind such an action:

Dear Mr. S.Y. Quraishi and Team, Let me first thank you for providing the much needed fun quotient on a dull weekend like yesterday.

[…]

Elephants? Why cover elephants? Elephants don’t wear clothes? Do they? Just because elephants are the poll symbols for BSP, you can’t order them to be covered. Then why spare others? Let’s order to cover all the lotuses (if they are that rampantly available), ask people to lock their cycles in their garage and order people to wear gloves as we can’t chop them off as they ultimately would need their fingers to cast the vote.

As the deadline ended this evening, it appears that the Election Commission's directive has been complied with - apparently at a cost of over 1 crore (10 million) rupees.

COP17: Young Trackers Share Final Thoughts on Climate Change Talks

Andrea Arzaba — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 12:24:04 +0000

Adopt a Negotiator Project trackers updated their blogs daily during the two weeks of climate change talks at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change, COP17, held from November 28 to December 9, 2011, in South Africa. Trackers followed negotiations from their regional perspectives, writing in languages like Portuguese, Spanish, Chinese, French, Polish and English.

One of the major results of the conference was the second commitment of the Kyoto Protocol, the only legally binding international treaty to reduce green house emissions. However, the commitment was weak, as major polluters like Canada, US, Japan, Russia, Australia and New Zealand refused to sign into this second period.

Climate activists and organizations of civil society were disappointed about the outcomes of the conference, especially because countries agreed to a new legal instrument that will replace the Kyoto Protocol by 2020, when urgent action is needed.

Here are were some of the most relevant conclusions written by the trackers:

South Africa tracker Alex Lenferna reports on the final events in the post “An Interim Disappointment at COP 17″:

I should be on a bus home now; instead I’m sitting in the ICC waiting for the proverbial white smoke to emerge as ministers try to bring COP17 to a close. Last night was supposed to be the closing night for COP 17, but there has been much disagreement among the global community around some very problematic texts that are being discussed around long-term cooperative action and the Kyoto Protocol…

Farrukh Zaman, following Pakistan, writes in “Decisions at COP17: Delayed or Derailed?”:

So while the delay has happened at COP17, let’s hope the negotiations don’t get derailed by postponing them till next year. But just one thing of caution, even though time has and is running out, we don’t need haste decisions; rather we want fair, ambitious and balanced package out of Durban. If that can’t happen here, then COP bis can be our last resort.

France tracker Sébastien Duyck in “Endless conference towards an agreement on never ending negotiations” concludes:

Regarding negotiations for a comprehensive agreement that would include legally binding targets for emissions reduction, the Presidency proposes yet another extension of the discussions. This approach convinces few among the observers still in the conference venue. It appears that we keep relaying on the same solutions (creating a new ad-hoc working group…), despite the fact that they have already been tested repeatedly in the past and have not delivered any successful outcome since the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol in 1997.

Daily Trackers meeting - COP17, Durban. Photo by Andrea Arzaba

In “Do białego rana. Noc kobiet” (”Until dawn. Women's Night”), Milosz Hordun, Poland's tracker, says:

Ta noc należy do kobiet. Po pierwsze jest Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, przewodnicząca obradom. Zdecydowanie zmęczona ostatnimi dwoma tygodniami. Stara się skutecznie prowadzić strony do celu, udowadniając że afrykański COP może być skuteczny i przełomowy. Często jednak się gubi w procedurach, musi prosić o wsparcie sekretariatu. Jest Conni Hedegaard, unijna komisarz. Także na jej twarzy maluje się zmęczenie. Widać, że trudno jest jej znosić ogromną presję psychiczną, związaną z rozbratem między oczekiwaniami wielu Europejczyków oraz środowisk ekologicznych na całym świecie a możliwościami negocjacyjnymi.

This night is a women's night. First of all, there is Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, who chairs the session. She is definitively tired from the last two weeks. She does her best to lead the two sides towards a common goal, proving that the African COP may be successful and become a turning point. However, she gets lost in the proceedings quite often; she has to ask the secretary for help. There is also Connie Hedegaard - European Commissioner [for Climate Action]. Though tiredness is written all over her face, too. You can see how difficult it is for her to handle this enormous pressure as there is a gap between what many Europeans and environmentalist through the globe hope for and negotiating possibilities.

Priti Rajagopalan, from India, summarized the conference's accomplishments in the post “COP17-This is what happened“:

5.18am, International Convention Center, Durban

The verdict is out. What was accomplished at Durban.

1) Something called the Durban railtrack or trackroad ..oh, wait…platform.
2) Empty second commitment period
3) Empty green climate fund
4) Sleepy people most of whom had left by the time the final verdict was given.
5) How manipulative, apparently transparent democratic , multilateral process works.
6) People are looking for CBDR and Bali. If someone finds it, please return it.
7) Unclear mitigation target.
8) Massive failure of a peaceful kind.

To read other final posts of trackers following the United States, Mexico, Australia, China, Canada and New Zealand, among many others, visit Adopt a Negotiator Project webpage.

Andrea Arzaba participated in COP17 as a Young Tracker for Mexico [es].

Thanks to Krzysztof Pawliszak for translating Milosz Hordun's quote.